My son is 7 and is currently in first grade. Here is his "academic history":

1. He went to a Montessori kindergarten and learned to read and do
4-digit addition and subtraction.

2. When he entered first grade in a good neighborhood public school in
the fall of 2004, his teacher gave him an assessment and told us that
his reading and math are both at the 2nd grade level. There were four
kids in his class at about the same level in reading, so the teacher
gave these kids different reading lessons and my son made a lot of
progress in reading. In math, however, the same lesson was given to
the entire class, regardless of the kids' actual level. At the end of
the fall semester, he made a lot of progress in reading, but no
progress at all in math. In December, he could do only 2 digit
addition, less than what he could do in kindergarten.

3. In the winter semester of 2005, we moved to another city
temporarily for sabbatical and transferred him to the local Montessori
school. There, he could learn essentially anything he wants.
Curriculum is tailored towards each individual student. After five
months, he is now reading chapter books, and has finished division.

4. We are moving back home in the summer. The plan is to send him back
to the same public school (as the Montessori schools are both far away
and expensive). Our dilemma is whether we should let him skip a grade
in the fall, and go directly into third grade.

The pros is that he will be intellectually challenged, rather than
bored.  However, I don't know the implications for his growth in
social skills. Will he be at a disadvantage socially to be in a class
where everyone is one year older than he is? What's the long term
effect of skipping a grade? Will he always feel and act like he is
always the baby of the class? My casual observation in his preschool
class was that the boys had a hierarchy which were completely based on
their age. The oldest boy (by a month!) was the leader of the group,
followed by the 2nd oldest, etc. Are there any studies in education or
psychology on the effect of skipping grades? Are the effects different
for boys than for girls?

Hello, amadeus123-ga!

 First off, congratulations on raising such a bright and healthy boy!
I can tell you care tremendously for him and worry a great deal about
making the right choice concerning his next grade level. Wouldn't it
be nice to have a looking glass into the future to help us know that
we are making the best decisions for our children? Unfortunately, in
most cases, we never really know if our decisions are the right ones -
at least not until our children are grown.

 No matter what you decide, there are ways to supplement your son's
education if he is bored and you decide to keep him at grade level.
Conversely, there are ways to help him learn to adjust to the older
boys if he is a bit nervous as he moves through each grade.
Extracurricular activities will also help him find his niche and learn
to be comfortable with himself so that peer pressure and the opinions
of others are not so important. Plus, involvement in activities that
interest him will help him find his own group of friends early on.
That is a great advantage.

 The following references should do a good job of providing some
answers to your questions. Once you have read through them, it will be
up to you to use the information you have read and apply it to your
child, as ONLY YOU can do. You know your son best. I don't think a
decision either way is going to affect his future to a tremendous
degree, since you can always step in to help and supplement with
academic, emotional and extracurricular support!

 For some further opinions and reassurance, you might also consider
meeting with a counselor who can do a simple evaluation of your child
for age-readiness. The John's Hopkins University Center for Talented
Youth has some testing suggestions and assessment options on their
website. The center might also be able to steer you to someone in your
area.

 About the John's Hopkins Diagnostic and Counseling Center
 http://www.cty.jhu.edu/dcc/index.html

 Students showing early promise:
 http://www.cty.jhu.edu/dcc/earlypromise.html




ARTICLES FOR YOUR CONSIDERATION
**********************************


"Acceleration," by Carol Fertig. Primary Peeks
http://www.ccsd.k12.co.us/gt/Resources/Primary%20Peeks/acceleration.htm

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"Acceleration - A legitimate means of meeting the needs of gifted
children," by Dr Sarah Evans.
http://www.nexus.edu.au/teachstud/gat/evanss.htm

=

"Should Gifted Students Be Grade-Advanced?" by Sharon J. Lynch. ERIC
EC Digest #E526 August 1994
http://www.hoagiesgifted.org/eric/e526.html

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"Helping Your Highly Gifted Child," by Stephanie S. Tolan. ERIC EC Digest #E477
1990  http://www.hoagiesgifted.org/eric/e477.html

=

"A case for acceleration," by Hultgren, H. Understanding Our Gifted,
Open Space Communications 1989 Vol. 1, No. 3, pp. 1, 8-10
http://www.ditd.org/Cybersource/record.aspx?sid=11446&scat=902&stype=110

Excerpt from "The Case of Kurt" 

"This description will illustrate the difficulty one faces in making
the decision to accelerate a student, in this case by multiple grade
skipping and subject acceleration. A bright boy, quiet and a little
slow to develop motor skills, Kurt began kindergarten at five years.
By the time he had finished fourth grade, he was academically well in
advance of other 10 year olds. His parents initiated a request to have
him skip the fifth grade and begin sixth grade at age ten. At the same
time Kurt was completing his second year of private tutoring in German
and was working weekly with a mentor on paleontology projects. Kurt
did skip 5th grade, and after four months of observing Kurt's
adjustment to 6th grade, his parents requested that he be permitted to
transfer fulltime to the junior high, where he had taken 7th grade
honors math. They cited as reasons, "the fact that the 6th grade
curriculum was largely review," "his current elementary school
demonstrated no effort nor interest in trying to meet his needs in the
classroom or in the gifted program," and "Kurt has repeatedly
initiated dialogue concerning his wanting more challenges in school."
His parents felt that he had made friends in the junior high and that
additional acceleration would benefit him."

(Read further........

=

From "Skip a grade?"
http://www.austega.com/gifted/provisions/gradeskip.htm

"Is skipping a good idea? What are the drawbacks? 

"The major drawback is the transition being handled poorly and
conspicuously, thus putting heavy and generally unnecessary pressure
on the child, with this pressure coming from peers and/or teachers.
Other drawbacks are the possible adverse social consequences of the
increased chance (by no means certainty given the large age range for
say puberty) that the child will reach biological milestones later
than his classmates, and that some existing friendships can be lost.
If you are contemplating a change of schools anyway then it seems that
many of these drawbacks either do not apply or are minimised."

"The advantages are increased probability that the child will find
schoolwork interesting and "school learning" meaningful and indeed
possible, increased probability that the child will find intellectual
and emotional peers to relate openly with, and by no means least that
the child will have gained a year of his or her life that might
otherwise be wasted in redundant schooling."

"There is some debate about whether gifted children are typically more
emotionally mature than other children of their age. Obviously each
child needs to be considered individually - they are all so different.
But research suggests that the emotional age (as measured in
psychological tests) tends to lie between chronological and
intellectual ages. There has been discussion in this forum of
emotionally brittle gifted children - they certainly exist. My view
here is that the majority of emotional brittleness seen in some gifted
children can be traced to inappropriate placement in school with the
child finding themselves uncomfortably placed with children that he
feels different to but is told are his peers and equals. This and most
children's (and adults') need to belong can lead to all sorts of
problems - disastrous self-denial and low self-esteem; clowning and
acting-out behaviour to try to gain acceptance/attention; anti-social
or rebellious behaviour (particularly in boys); and/or total turn-off
and turn-in and/or underachievement."

=

From "Should Gifted Students Be Grade-Advanced?" Project Appleseed.
http://www.projectappleseed.org/gifted.html

"Is Educational Acceleration Harmful to the Child Emotionally or Socially?"

"This is the aspect of educational acceleration that seems to worry
parents and educators most. Generally speaking, children who are
well-adjusted and socially at ease who accelerate report having two
groups of friends-they belong to a circle of older students, but they
also retain friendships with children who are the same age. Note that
children naturally choose to play with children of all ages in their
neighborhoods."

"Children who are socially withdrawn or who have difficulty making
friends may experience similar problems when placed with older
children. On the other hand, there are cases in which a gifted child
is more at ease socially with older children than with age-mates. This
may be true more often for girls than boys. The receiving classroom
teacher in an accelerated setting can be a valuable ally to the
younger student, helping him or her find a niche among the older
students. Remember that schools see no problem in placing "precocious"
athletes with older teammates."



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An excerpt from "Gifted and Talented - Question and Answer by Noreen
H. Joslyn, LISW, ACSW
http://www.familyeducation.com/experts/advice/0,1183,63-28074,00.html

"There are obvious advantages to seeking a challenging program for a
gifted child through grade-skipping. There are also disadvantages that
I am sure many have already told you (his friends will date and drive
before him, he will be smaller in size for sports, etc.). One
disadvantage that I never see mentioned is that your child will leave
your home one or more years sooner if he is grade-skipped. Sure, he
might postpone college but that is not the norm. We only get to have
our kids with us for so long and I hesitate to speed up that time
without the most extenuating circumstances."

=

An excerpt from the answer to a letter on the ParentKidsRight website:
http://www.parentkidsright.com/pt-earlykindergarten.html

"I have recently reviewed the literature on early / late starts as
well as skipping a grade. Guess what? It depends on the individual
child and the family. Some children thrive in a challenging
intellectual environment and do suffer from boredom if not challenged.
Some children are hesitant in new situations and don't seem to get
bored with repetition of the same material."

=

"Alternatives to acceleration for the highly gifted child." Lewis, G.
Roeper Review, The Roeper School Spring 2002 Vol. 24, No. 3
http://www.geniusdenied.com/Cybersource/Record.aspx?lib=1&sort=SourceName&scat=902&stype=110&sid=11420&NavID=7_24&sterm=%22Acceleration%22

"Case studies of two highly gifted preschoolers demonstrate the widely
varying abilities of children at the highest ends of the intelligence
scales. The article discusses pitfalls in providing programs for the
highly gifted and warns that acceleration is not enough. The author
suggests that three key components -- assessment, flexible scheduling
and counseling -- are critical to the success of any program for
children with advanced intellectual gifts."

"Children seldom fit neatly in to boxes, even when we group them in
the hope that they will. It is convenient to educate children selected
for homogeneity, but the more highly gifted the group, the less likely
they are to fit into pre-arranged profiles."

(Read further.......


=

"Guidelines for grade advancement of precocious children." Feldhusen,
J., Proctor, T. & Black, K.  Roeper Review, The Roeper School
September 1986 Vol. 9, No. 1
http://www.geniusdenied.com/Cybersource/Record.aspx?lib=1&sort=SourceName&scat=902&stype=110&sid=11396&NavID=7_24&sterm=%22Acceleration%22

=

Options as your son gets older:

"Educational options for gifted learners." Davidson Institute for
Talent Development
http://www.geniusdenied.com/Cybersource/Record.aspx?lib=1&sort=SourceName&scat=902&stype=110&sid=13064&NavID=7_24&sterm=%22Acceleration%22



Additional Reading and References
===================================

"Yesterday's Whiz Kids: Where Are They Today?" By Melissa Hendricks.
Johns Hopkins Magazine. http://www.jhu.edu/~jhumag/0697web/whiz.html

Hoagies Gifted Education Page
http://www.hoagiesgifted.org/acceleration.htm

  

***


 You have a lot of information to sift through! I hope you find it
both encouraging and helpful. As I stated earlier, I don't really
think you can make a wrong decision either way!


Take care (and happy reading!)


umiat


Search Strategy

skipping a grade in the early years
pros and cons of skipping a grade for boys
is it easier for girls to skip a grade than boys?

Thank you so much for the very thorough and careful research! I
searched google myself before posting the question, therefore, I am
very impressed with such a complete and balance set of articles. The
information is really very helpful to us. Thanks again!

I personally would not recommend letting your son skip. As a child I
spent 1/2 year in 2nd grade and 1/2 year in 3rd then went to 4th. As a
result I was 12 years old going into high school (9th grade where I
lived) and was mature enough or ready socially. I would look at all
other options available.

I skipped two grades, and ended up going to college at age sixteen.
While I was intellectually precocious, I was socially backward, and I
had great difficulty making friends and feeling as if I were a part of
things. My brother had a similar experience. He was a freshman in
college when he was fifteen years old. For quite a while, he was a
virtual outcast among the more mature students, and was painfully shy.

I know other people who have skipped grades in school. Many of them
regret it. Some, of course, have happier tales to tell, but the number
of horror stories should, I think, give any parent pause. Before
pushing to advance your child in school, it is important to evaluate
the progress of non-academic aspects of his or her schooling. Learning
to socialize well with other people (fellow students) and to deal well
with authority figures (teachers) may, in the long run, be much more
valuable than passing tests, making good grades, and getting into
college early.

First of all, congratulations to both you and your son, and best
wishes for his future.

I skipped in total six grades, then travelled for a few years,
eventually starting an undergraduate degree at age 14. Naturally this
is an exaggeration of the amount of grades you're considering for your
son, but, as others have mentioned, there are some important factors
to consider:

- Social development
Your number one priority is his happiness. I can tell that you are
very concerned for his psychological and emotional wellbeing, which is
important. Although there are a lot of psychologically-based points of
view that will continually compare him to his 'peers' - people of the
same age; the truth of the matter is - as I spent longer and longer
with people older than me, they *became* my peers.

I cannot stress the importance of Extra-Curriculur activities. They
provide a non-academic context where he can affiliate with a range of
children, both his academic peers and his chronological peers, and
provide somewhat of an oasis and escape from the age-based separation
that is part of the infrastructure of traditional schooling systems.

In many schools, because of his age and being the youngest in the
class, bullying may be a problem. Having said that, in this day and
age, bullying can be a problem for a wide range of children
regardless, and from personal experience, if left with the same group
of children, they get used to the situation.

As children grow older, novelty wears off. Whilst I'm still a lot
younger than my academic peers in my undergraduate degree now, most of
my friends forget this fact, because they're simply so used to the
fact, the novelty wears off and it completely slips their mind.

- Subjects with a cultural foundation
Subjects like Literature, Sexual Education, Physical Education, and
some humanities subjects are closely related to the age of a person,
regardless of intelligence. I'm sure you understand that intelligence
isn't broadform - people can be talented and gifted in particular
subjects and not in others. If possible, bear this in mind, and see if
he can be promoted academically in select subjects, not overall.

I mention this because in later years, if he is ever promoted further,
it may leave a cultural gap (for example, literature he hasn't read
because he skipped a great) that has been overlooked.

- Intellectual stimulation
Naturally, you want to keep your son intellectually stimulated - for
lack of a better explanation, your son needs to "use it or lose it" -
as you have no doubt learnt through your experiences (with his
arithmetic), if he is not continually challenged, his skills will
begin to fade.

- Emotional development
From a personal perspective, as someone who has been in the "grade
skipping" system extensively, I would particularly encourage you to
ensure the following

* He should know that, if need be, he is able to return to the normal
grade for his age, if he feels most comfortable at such a level, and
regardless of the effort you, or anyone else has put into allowing him
to skip grades, he should not be ashamed or intimidated.

* Find a good school principal, guidance counsellor or mentor, either
within the academic system, or a psychologist or similar. This is
someone you can turn to for helpful advice, and who will most likely
be the person your boy can continually confide in, about how he feels
in his academic situation. Importantly, ensure this person is someone
who you can entrust your son's academic and psychological wellbeing
in, and not someone who is eager to make a case study out of him, for
personal curiousity and/or their academic kudos.

* In a current environment, this goes without saying, but while
intellectually stimulating him, there is no need for him to feel
intense pressure at this stage in his life. Then again, it depends on
whether he has a naturally competitive streak. I never did, and I'm
thankful for it, but this will depend on his personal nature.

In my opinion, Montessori schooling is a fantastic option for your son
as it allows him to not necessarily be separated from his 'peers' by
his academic status, and is customised to his needs. However, as he
nears closer to his college and university days, this system will most
likely not be as practical or sensible (from a transition point of
view), but in my opinion is great during his early development.

Adolescence will, from my estimation based on my experiences, be a
major experience for your son, not only due to the fact that he may
most likely experience it a bit later than his academic peers, as he
grows older, the physical difference between his academic peers and
his chronological (age) peers will become less and less noticeable.

Please note that I'm not a professional and every opinion I have
expressed above are simply my personal thoughts. Overall, I am
thankful that I wasn't left behind, trapped in the academic status
given to my age, but as his parent, you, and as he grows older, your
son himself are the only people who will be able to accurately
determine what is really best in his case.

Best wishes and God Bless.

- TJ.

Dear jmanly, pinkfreud and TJ, 

Thanks so much for sharing your personal experience with me!  I am
very touched by your care and concern for my son. I am grateful for
all the advice. We will try to make the best decisions possible.

Thank you for your very kind comments, rating and tip, Amadeus. Best
of luck to you in your decision. Enjoy your son. Children grow up way
to fast. Before you know it, they're gone!

My brother and I both skipped kindergarten with no ill effects.  I
attended public school during 1st and 2nd grades; he did during 1st
grade.  I don't recall ever noticing or thinking about the fact that I
was younger than my classmates.  I even recall being "popular" in 1st
grade.  My brother had problems with misbehaviour, but I suspect he
would have behaved as badly had he remained in kindergarten.

However, despite skipping a grade, I was still working at a higher
level than my classmates.  That might also be the case for your son. 
The public school's inability to tailor the instruction to my level
was a factor in my parents' decision to homeschool me.  (Homeschooling
is another way your son could learn at his own level, if that's
something you're willing and able to do.)

Note that when your son is older, there will be more options for him. 
Your local community college can be a great resource.  I started
attending there at age 15 (when finished high school and wasn't ready
to move away from home).  The community college is attended by other
young homeschool graduates and gifted kids from the local public high
school, so there are a lot of young people.